On Media

Dylan Ratigan to leave MSNBC

MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan is leaving the network "to pursue new opportunities," according to an email from Ratigan and MSNBC President Phil Grifin.

Ratigan's final show will air June 22; on June 25, host Martin Bashir will move his program back an hour to the 4 p.m. slot. The network is currently working on a new program for the 3 p.m. hour.

In his note to the staff, first reported by The New York Times, Ratigan cited his desire to tell the stories of individuals who "seize new tools and take cultural risks to resolve our challenges" as the reason for his departure, though he did not specify his future plans.

"I have decided to leave cable news to collaborate and join with some of these leaders to experiment and explore new ways to tell their stories," Ratigan wrote. "While it may seem unconventional to leave a rapidly growing political cable show on the eve of a presidential election, to me, the timing couldn’t be better."

In an interview with the Times, Ratigan said cable news “is designed to argue about rules and resources, and who should control them," and that he was more interested in doing something about the issues he was paid to discuss every day. The Times reports that Ratigan was paid the unusually high salary of "about $1 million a year, according to several staff members," and that his contract is set to expire this month.

Ratigan is a former financial journalist and CNBC host, and the author of "Greedy Bastards: How We Can Stop Corporate Communists, Banksters, and Other Vampires from Sucking America Dry." He joined MSNBC in 2009. "The Dylan Ratigan Show," in its current iteration, launched in 2010.

Ratigan's full note to the staff is available here. More to come on MSNBC's plans for the 3 p.m. hour tomorrow and throughout the week...

NOTE: This post has been updated to include a link to The New York Times, which reported the story prior to TV Newser.